PEOPLE NEWS—THIRD EDITION—DATED 12-31-18
A division of PEOPLE of Construction

Welcome to the third edition of PEOPLE News, a newsletter designed to shine a light on the achievements of the minority contracting community within the design and construction industry in the St. Louis marketplace. PEOPLE is a non-profit, non-fee, non-organization formed for the purpose of introducing minority contracting firms to the majority contracting firms in the St. Louis area. If you wish to be on the mailing list of PEOPLE, please e-mail Ron Unterreiner at PEOPLEofconstruction@gmail.com. Further information may be obtained on PEOPLE by visiting the PEOPLE web site at PEOPLEofconstruction.org.

With the ending of 2018 seems to come the need to recount and highlight the achievements or lack of achievements of the 364 days recently passed. I suppose PEOPLE NEWS is no exception other than I will focus on the news as I know it be for the time passed since the second edition of PEOPLE NEWS was published.

On Tuesday, February 12, we held our fifth-year anniversary PEOPLE meeting in the Hard Hat Café room at Hillsdale Fabricators—the former home of Alberici. We had great attendance and some good discussions among the many minority firms in the room and the many general contractors in the room. Representatives of Alberici; Tarlton; SM Wilson; EM Harris; Simms Building Group; McCarthy; The Lawrence Group; Paric; Steve Lewis from the AGC; and representatives from Southern Illinois Builders Association (SIBA) were present, staying to the end to respond to questions and receive contact information from the group. Icon Mechanical and Johnson Controls, represented the prime subcontractors; both firms having supported PEOPLE from the very beginning.

Minority firms in attendance were: Sledroc Construction; Jath Construction; Gray Construction Group (a newly formed carpentry company); Harrambe Masonry; A-Plus Contractors; Elastizell of St. Louis; CMT LLC; Scales Plumbing; STMMM Cleaning Services; Contempo Construction; Pinkston Ornamental Iron; Two Hills Painting; CNJ Mechanical; TSI Global; Wenplan (a software designer company); City Design Group; DLJ Construction; Management Services; Gaus Acoustics; Brand Construction; TDPSTL, LLC (an architectural firm); and possibly some that I missed that did not sign in. It was a good and active crowd.

Sal Valadez represented the laborers union; Rene Dulle attended from St. Louis Community College; South Tech High was represented; Benjamin Hayes was there representing himself looking for an engineering position—e mail me for information; and Tyler Coleman, accountant was there looking for opportunities in accounting—again, e mail me for information.

Did I miss anyone—I usually do?

In honor of our fifth year of conducting PEOPLE meetings, Keith Crawford from Management Services brought a beautifully decorated sheet cake which was appreciated by all. Regina Brand of Brand Construction supplied a couple trays of various sandwiches and a cooler full of soda and bottled water. SIBA also helped with the financial expenses, as they always do, and together we were well nourished during the entire meeting. I must say we are getting pretty used to be pampered at these meetings. My thanks to all for helping to make our anniversary successful.

So, what has happened since the Volume 2 edition of PEOPLE?

Awards and Events:

BJC hosted a BJC 101 Education Program Recognition Ceremony in late December recognizing the vision, leadership and innovation of minority firms attending their BJC 101 classes during the year. It was a very nicely organized program with Marvin Johnson of CMP leading the way and bringing in Rebeccah Bennett of Emerging Wisdom to open the program—always a class act to have Rebeccah as part of the program. She does not know it, but she was a guiding light to me in the founding of my PEOPLE organization.

Honored at the program were Laura Baebler of LNB Architects and Preston Martin, of WA Architecture. Both firms are MBE certified architectural firms doing some nice work in our area. Cordell Sawyer of Sledrok Construction was honored for his commitment to the program as was Carlos Milo of Ardor Fire Protection.

The room was packed with minority contracting firms and the program was a great tribute and acknowledgement of their work this past year. Thanks to BJC and CMP for making this event possible.

We talked about the MOKAN Gala and Awards dinner in the last edition but at the time I did not know the winner of the WBE/MBE Contractor of the Year award—that honor went to Sabrina Westfall and her J. West Electrical Contracting Company—well deserved. J. West is doing great things and will be an important part of our industry as she continues to build her company.

The Council of Construction Consumers held their annual diversity event on the St. Louis Community College Campus and it was well attended by owners and contractors. Included on the panel of presenters were Bayer (Monsanto); MoDot; MSD; BJC; Ameren; Parkway School District; USACE; and St. Louis County. There were some lively discussions to start the program and then several minority firms were given the opportunity to introduce their company to various owners set up in different breakout rooms. As always, the SLCCC events give minority contractors that rare opportunity to meet the buyers of construction services direct. I wish there would have been more minority firms in attendance; the event was set up in a nice format for firms to raise their visibility in the marketplace.

On January 30th the ASA (American Subcontracting Association) held their annual Meet the GC’s night at the St. Charles Convention Center. The event was well attended—very well attended—and over 30 GC’s manned booths to meet their subcontractors and vendors and to seek out new subcontractors and vendors. It was a great night of networking and if you moved fast enough you were able to stock up your supply of GC logo ballpoint pens for an entire year. I even grabbed a few of those great Rhodey Construction pens but don’t tell anyone.

I love this event and what it offers to new and emerging firms—especially minority firms–and thank the ASA for continuing this tradition. MBE/WBEW firms I recognized in the crowd (and remember at this time) include Gaus Acoustics; CMT LLC; Square Up; AME Carpentry; and, of course, KAI; Rhodey Construction; Tarlton; and Interface who all manned their respective GC tables. I am sure there were more minority firms in the house but, unfortunately, for them and for our industry, fewer than I would have liked to see participate.

CONTRACTORS ON THE MOVE

Sultan Construction has picked up a nice contract demolishing another 21 homes in the city as well as enjoying early success with their move to operating as a union affiliated contractor. Sultan is also doing some work with Paric and enjoying success.

Trenholm Insulation, CNJ Mechanical and Great Rivers Glass attended my LET’S TALK ABOUT WORK class which was held at Cross Rhodes SLDC Plan Room. We had some meaningful discussion and I think I learned as much as they did. The class was designed to help minority firms decide which projects to bid; which markets to pursue; which GC’s may be best for their style of doing business; and any and all matters involving how to find work. I would be happy to repeat this class for others; if interested, e mail me at PEOPLEofconstruction@gmail.com.

Jath Construction is making great progress with their new sitework/demolition firm and Jath will be one of those firms you wish you would have contacted earlier and developed a relationship. Do it now!

CMT was recently awarded a major contract for abatement work on the metro link tunnel where they will work direct for Kiewit on the Bi-State project. Great start of the year for CMT and their abatement division. They are in the running for several other high visibility demolition and abatement projects in the city; keep CMT in mind for abatement and demolition work in addition to their roofing division.

LaMarko Scales of Scales Plumbing will team with Robert Trask and Parkway Plumbing to perform the plumbing work on the Boys and Girls Teen Center in Ferguson, as managed by KAI Design Build. Parkway has established a true partnership with Scales and wants this relationship to be a model relationship for others to follow. Now, that would be nice. Scales is also working with OJ Laughlin Plumbing on the BICO project as part of the City Foundry development.

Simms Building Group was recently awarded a Commerce Bank renovation project as designed by my nephew, Chris Mrozewski of V3 Studios. Just thought I would get a family plug in here. Simms will employ several minority firms on the project and hope to get themselves in a position for future work by Commerce.

Ann Clabon and Great Rivers Glass completed the glass and glazing work on the new Greenleaf Market down on 12th Street as part of the North City Development. Greenleaf is a great addition to that area of the city and looks to be ready for opening soon.

Gaus Acoustics is in the process of supplying the new Mizzou School of Music Building in Columbia with major acoustical treatment of the interior. Gaus operates as an acoustical consultant as well as representing numerous lines of acoustical products. Treatment of sound in the working environment is finally being recognized as a huge necessity for improvement of productivity in the workplace.

MISCELLANEOUS

I just attended an informational gathering on diversity hosted by the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the SLCCC. Sal Valadez of LIUNA was the host peppering a panel consisting of many good people working to make diversity and inclusion happen. We had some good discussions but man, an hour and a half zips by so quickly. We will re-group later and continue to search for answers. As I was sitting there listening to the views of many, I was reminded of my TEN COMMANDMENTS of diversity; think I shall include them here and call this third edition a wrap.

It is my belief that we need to find workable answers and solutions to the following ten points if we are ever to realize complete success with diversity and inclusion. Here they be; not in any particular order of importance as all ten need to happen to achieve success:

1. Owners need to pay monthly progress pay applications from general contractors by the tenth of the month—assuming application is complete and submitted by the 25th of the prior month
2. Emerging firms–be they MBE, WBE or Majority firms–must be committed to their business. Let the passion show.
3. General Contractors need to take a more active role in making diversity happen.
4. Financial community needs to come out of hiding and help to make a difference.
5. All workers—be they apprentice, minority or seasoned journeyman—must be proud of their trade and fully committed to a full eight hours of actual productive work per day.
6. The active workforce needs to not only accept but WELCOME new workers—minority or otherwise—to the work force and to their projects.
7. Subcontract community needs to open their arms to emerging firms—be they minority or otherwise—and provide more meaningful mentoring and teaming programs.
8. Construction community outside of the public market needs to get in the game.
9. Society in general needs to be accepting of all minority races—we need to mix it up; we need to know, love, help and trust each other—can that happen?
10. Marketing and promotion events need to take place involving interaction with emerging firms—be they minority or otherwise. All events; all times—not just once a year events aimed at the minority contracting community.

I realize I hit a few nerves with some, or maybe all, of these points but I do believe this is where we need to center our discussions and focus our energy if we are truly looking for success with diversity and inclusion within our industry. We are making progress.

Any news items, company achievements, awards, meeting notices or general comments of any kind may be sent to PEOPLEofconstruction@gmail.com